Curiosity is Essential

"We write and read not because we already know, not in order to reassert habits and expectations, but because we are in search of what we don't know, of what is dangerously new, unpredictable" (Nafisi, 1)

When I think of the practices we enforce in our school systems, it seems like many of them are done just to do rather than to learn. I remember in high school I hated doing "busy-work." The assignments teachers would give us when we finished everything they had planned in class so we could "reinforce" what we had just spent an hour and a half learning and reviewing. I understand the need for repetition when it comes to certain subjects and many ideas, but when I had to fill in the blanks on a pointless work sheet for 20minutes, I couldn't find a point. Many students get bored with their classes because it feels like they arn't learning. I had good grades and finished the majority of my work, but I found myself staring at the wall thinking of what I was going to do after class rather than actually paying attention to what my teachers were saying. This comes from a lack of interest. In many class situations I didn't even bother trying to pay attention because I had gotten so used to the boring class structure I'd been in all year. But when it came to classes that were taught differently, I was able to focus and really learn a lot. Outside of school when I found something that interested me, I could spend hours learning about all the parts and pieces that went into whatever had struck me as worth learning about.

Curiosity plays a major role in learning and teaching because it is motivation. It's exciting to read about something new; it's fun to write a paper about something from a point of view that is different from the norm. The quote above points out that people long to experience new things in life. We can easily get bored with things we know and see everyday. But when we are faced with something we've never seen before, we will happily take the time to learn about it. Infants will stare longer at something that is an anomaly to them than they will at something they are used to. It is innate for people to want to know about new things.

Before I started classes this year, I was having lunch with my mom. She said, "When you go back to school, I want you to try something. I want you to try and remember the excitement you felt the very first time you walked on sand. Try and apply that sense of curiosity, excitement, and pure pleasure to your classes." We really can learn a lot from little kids. Imagine living in a world where you know hardly anything about the details that go into what is all around you. Where everything is an anomaly. Take the little kid who walks on sand for the first time, for example. At first he or she may not move at all, completely surprised by this completely new ground they are standing on. Next they begin to wiggle their toes; feeling the sand move slightly underneath their feet, then fall between their toes. They giggle in surprise when they step and the ground sinks slightly underneath them. Soon enough the beach is filled with little kids running through the sand, digging to China, experimenting in the waves to learn about how the water effects the sand. There are kids throwing sand, eating it, exploring all the aspects of this new element.

When we grow up, we may not remember exactly what it felt like to play in sand for the first time, but we can still experience the joys of learning. Talking is one way we can do this. Hearing another person's story is an excellent way to use our imaginations to view our world in a completely different light. Nafisi says, "No amount of moral preaching or political correctness can replace what the imagination gives us when it places us in other people's experiences, opening our eyes to vistas and views we never knew existed" (1). We need to stop looking around and just seeing what we have to see. In order to get more out of life we need to open our minds to the experiences we've never had. This doesn't mean that we'll never be able to appreciate them. Who knows, we may have to live some of these unknown experiences later on in life. But we can also learn about them by listening to what other people have to say. We can easily begin to enrich our lives if we expand the number of things we are curious about, and listen to what others have to say.

BE CURIOUS!! and COMMUNICATE!!!